Fischer-Spassky 1992 sponsor extradited to Serbia

4/6/2010 – Last April the fugitive Serbian banker Jezdimir Vasiljevic was arrested in Holland for submitting false asylum documents. He was on the most wanted list in his country, accused of stealing more than $130 million in a Ponzi scheme. Some of this went to the 1992 rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. On Friday Vasiljevic was extradited to Serbia, as the New York Times reports.

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The Fischer-Spassky Rematch in 1992

After winning the World Championship match against Boris Spassky in 1972 Bobby
Fischer disappeared from public view for 20 years. In 1992 he returned to play
a chess match with Boris Spassky in 1992. Fischer was 49 years old, Spassky
was 55. The venue was the Yugoslav town of Sveti Stefan, an island resort just
off the coast of Montenegro. The prize fund was US $5,000,000, of which the
winner – the first player to win ten games – got 3.65 million. Victory
went to Fischer. The match sponsor was Jezdimir Vasiljevic, President of Jugoskandic
Bank, and a crony of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

Promotional video with Vasiljevic shown at the time of the match

At the time a civil war was being waged in Bosnia, and Sveti Stefan was just
200 km from the besieged city of Sarajevo. The United Nations had imposed sanctions
against Yugoslavia and the United States Treasury Department had warned Fischer
not to play the match, threatening him with severe penalties for disobeying
this order. On 1 September 1992 Fischer gave his first press conference in 20
years. When asked about his reaction to the threats by Washington, Fischer took
out a letter from the Treasury Department and spat on it.

Original CNN news footage of the 1992 press conference in Yugoslavia shows
Fischer spitting on the order from the U.S. Treasury Department warning him
that he would be violating U.N sanctions if he played his match against Boris
Spassky. The above frame shows Fischer in mid-spit.

Fischer in the 1992 press conference together with Vasiljevic...

... and during the match, which Fischer won +10, =15, –5

On 2 September 1992, an editorial in the New York Times said: "[It] reeks
of callousness, not to mention disregard for international law. The match also
violates President Bush's executive order forbidding Americans to do business
in Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav entrepreneur Jezdimir Vasiljevic is trying to recast
the match as a charity event by pledging to donate $600,000 to refugee relief.
This changes almost nothing. With its lucrative revenues from sponsor fees and
television rights, and its purse of $5 million, the match is a business venture,
pure and simple."

Vasiljevic charged with Ponzi scam, extradited to Belgrade

In April 2009 Jezdimir Vasiljevic was arrested in Holland for filing faked
documents as an asylum seeker. The Serbian Ministry of Justice immediately requested
his extradition to face trial on charges of embezzling more than $38 million
and stealing about $130 million from investors in his bank, Yugoskandic, in
a Ponzi scheme. His trial had started once before at a Belgrade court, but as
it got under way, he jumped bail in 2007 and fled from Serbia.

Earlier this year Vasiljevic, who is now 61, requested that he be deported
from the Dutch prison to Ecuador and not Serbia. According to his lawyer he
has Ecuadorian citizenship, having married and Ecuadorian national. Now the
New York Times and other newspapers report that the fugitive banker was extradited
to Serbia from the Netherlands on Friday.

A Ponzi scheme is a
fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors from
their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any
actual profit earned. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering
returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns
that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of
the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing
flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going. The massive Ponzi scheme
perpetrated by Bernard
Madoff stands as the largest financial investor fraud in history committed
by a single person. Prosecutors estimate losses at Madoff's hand totalling $64.8
billion.

See also

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Video

The introductory position of the Kasparov Gambit can occur after 1 d4,1 Nf3 and 1 c4, which can appeal to a wide range of players. The usual move order is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 bringing us to a very sharp position. On this 60 mins, FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin argues the case from the Black side, showing both classic Kasparov masterpieces and games from the present day and suggests that White's defensive task is not easy. This is a practical gambit which will help players at all levels to win more games. It is ideal for must-win situations with Black. It is a gambit that White cannot decline,as if he does, Black gets a good position instantly. White must take up the cudgels and fight!